DCCC hopes to create more graduates, interest in new manufacturing arena

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Nov 23, 2012 at 4:45 PMNov 25, 2012 at 9:25 AM

John McFoy thinks his new job is fun. It's cool, he said.

BY NASH DUNNThe Dispatch

John McFoy thinks his new job is fun. It's cool, he said. A former mechanic, McFoy went back to school at Davidson County Community College to learn skills in advanced manufacturing. McFoy, who will graduate from DCCC by 2014, started working as a machinist for Special Fab and Machine Inc. in Lexington about a month ago. He's loved every minute of it, he said."When I got laid off, I wanted to try something different," McFoy said. "Now, I'm hooked. Sure, it's work, but it's fun. When you take nothing and turn it into something, it's really a good feeling."Educators, workforce boards and manufacturing professionals say their field is in need of more youthful, capable workers like McFoy. If they don't find them or recruit them, industry insiders like Randy Ledford say the field could really be headed for rock bottom."If we don't get middle school students and high school students involved in our field, then we will have a big crisis," said Ledford, DCCC's dean of the college of business, engineering and technical studies. "We won't have enough trained workers to replace those that are getting ready to retire."It's no secret that the outlook of the manufacturing industry in Davidson County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad region has changed drastically in the past 30 years. Seeking the advantages of cheaper labor and the lower cost of logistics, companies started shifting their operations overseas, leaving thousands unemployed at home. Just since 2005, Davidson County has lost about 5,190 jobs in the furniture, structural metals and resin, rubber and artificial fibers manufacturing industries, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.Yet just as some newspapers and economists were set to proclaim the industry "dead" at the onset of the Great Recession, a flurry of new, high-quality and advanced manufacturers started moving into the region in recent years, giving what some have called new life — and hope — to the industry Ledford said will always be a part of this community."The Piedmont Triad, geographically, is in a great place to be a hub, where there is access to an abundance of rail, interstates and quick access along the East Coast," Ledford said. "Advanced manufacturing, and manufacturing in general, is part of our blood and part of our lifeline. Historically, that is ingrained in us, and not only does that help us, but it has hurt us sometimes as well."There have been nearly a dozen jobs announcements from advanced manufacturers since the late 2000s, stretching from Guilford, Forsyth, Davie and Davidson counties. In 2010, TIMCO Aerosystems announced it would open the now-functional operations plant in Wallburg, pledging to eventually bring 500 jobs to the county. Most recently, Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corp. announced an expansion of its operations to Kernersville, where it plans to create at least 340 jobs by the end of 2016 and invest more than $97 million in its Forsyth County facility. With the onset of new jobs comes a demand for more skilled workers in the area. And right now, Ledford said there's a void to be filled. "We want to recruit new businesses to the area, but there is no reason to recruit these here if we can't fill the void we have," he said. "If we can't get a pipeline of those young workers flowing in, then we are really going to hit rock bottom."And in the same accord, if we don't get middle school students and high school students involved, then we will have a bigger crisis. We won't have enough trained workers to replace those that are getting ready to retire."So what's the key to interesting youngsters? Donovan McBride, an advanced manufacturing instructor at DCCC, answered that question by pulling out his iPhone. "Without a machinist, you don't have the cool stuff we use every day," McBride said. "If you expose kids to that and they understand it, they are more likely to have an interest in it."On Tuesday, McBride offered his insights to about a half-dozen students using a Computer Numerical Control Turning Machine at DCCC's advanced manufacturing lab. The lab, which opened in 2011, features the latest CNC machining and rapid prototyping equipment that students would use in a real manufacturing environment. Over the past six years, DCCC has invested more than $3 million in new equipment from its capital fund and additional grant funding, giving students in the college's machining, industrial drafting and design, global logistics, welding, industrial systems and electronic engineering technology curriculums hands-on experience with the technology they are learning about every day, said Jim Donnelly, DCCC's dean of the school of education, workforce development and entrepreneurship. Donnelly said DCCC's advanced manufacturing curriculums were specifically designed to teach the skills for which area companies are looking. He said they are also designed to produce new graduates at a faster rate, in about 18 weeks. "We've got people now in the pipeline of those curriculum programs, and we are seeing a growth of students in those programs this year," Donnelly said. Donnelly agrees with Ledford, though, that the pipeline needs to be larger. For there are jobs available, he said, adding that both he and Ledford are communicating with manufacturers all the time about openings in the region."The jobs are out there in this field," Donnelly said. "We don't necessarily have one company with 100 jobs, but we have 20 companies with two or five jobs."The key to attracting more interested students, Donnelly said, is making them knowledgeable about how the field has changed."A lot of people have a perception of manufacturing as what it's always been, in textiles, in tobacco and in furniture — highly manual, relatively unskilled jobs that have largely gone away," Donnelly said. "The growth we are seeing now is in advanced manufacturing, which is much more highly skilled, a different work environment. "One of the challenges we have collectively is that we don't have a bunch of young people who are clamoring to go into this field. All of them likely have one or multiple relatives who have had bad experiences with manufacturing because of all the changes we've had here, but these are more environmentally controlled atmospheres, highly skilled positions that provide higher rates of pay. They require a good foundation in technical skills."Nash Dunn can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 227, or at nash.dunn@the-dispatch.com.

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